Lakshmi is the co-founder of Atta Galatta, a bookstore in Bangalore which extended itself to become a cultural hub within a few years of operations. You can know more about Atta Galatta from the website http://www.attagalatta.com/. An advertising professional in the past, Lakshmi is a lover of art and literature, and she likes to travel. When in Bangalore, she spends all her time at the bookstore or with her dogs.

The stars swirled. The moon looked cold, white and distant. The light shone, shimmered, playing hide-and-seek with the senses. The fairy looked down.

Shivering, she clutched her beautiful gown closer and strained to hear footsteps. Her face was a myriad of emotions…ranging from sadness to longing. “Fairies do not have hearts,’ she thought to herself. “Am I a changeling? Else, why is this palpitation, this misery…Where did all these emotions come from…?”

“Strange,”…She wondered.

Erwan had not returned and the night seemed to drag.

“Are mortals always fickle, Khalida ?” She called to her horse, who playfully nuzzled her, in reply. She hugged her gently.
“I am missing him, but I don’t think he is coming back. He said he had left his heart with me. Does it mean so little to him? A heart!” She laughed strangely.

“I do not know what a heart does! Does it make you lie, cheat, betray?” She murmured, raving.

Khalida looked at her. “Don’t you blame yourself. He will be back”.

Mournfully, she put her head on Khalida and waited…waited…waited for centuries. Trees, creepers grew. Slowly she turned into a stone. Eyes glazed with the longing, relentless moon still shining on her. A heartless fairy waiting to be folded in her lover’s arms.

No reply. No footsteps…No happy cries of reunion. Just an eternal stillness! An eerie silence, and an eternal wait. Clutching a human heart, that had been plucked out of Erwan’s unwilling chest.
The erring heart that had been punished for its infidelity!